It’s called ‘the British betrayal’. Great Britain promised Brexit wouldn’t lead to the creation of a new border between the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.
It broke that promise.
Now the province’s Loyalists – those welded to the union with Great Britain – are feeling abandoned.
“It’s almost as if we have to be ashamed of being British citizens, ashamed of our heritage and ashamed of our identity”, says one Loyalist activist.
In the two decades since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland has kept a fractious peace but many are now wondering if this peace will hold.
“What we’ve witnessed over the past five to ten years especially is a more divisive, dividing political community”, says James, a social worker. “It’s about celebrating battles, it’s about celebrating death…conflict and rebellion.”
ABC London Bureau Chief Samantha Hawley reports from Northern Ireland where Catholic and Protestant communities are still deeply divided and traumatised by ‘the Troubles’ – the blood-stained civil war that tore Northern Ireland apart for three decades, from the 1960s.
Recently, sectarian riots broke out in Belfast, provoked by the new sea border.
“The whole area was completely filled by police in riot gear…and we had petrol bombs and everything,” says one local, who had to move his children out of the area to safety.
Across the capital, the so called ‘Peace Walls’ erected during the Troubles still play an important role in keeping hostile communities apart.
Also disturbing is the emergence of shadowy new paramilitary groups – small but violent.
Two years ago, one of these groups – ‘the New IRA’ – killed young reporter Lyra McKee who was on the streets of Londonderry during a riot.
“They’re criminals who wear a mask of Irish republicanism to try and hide the fact that they’re criminals,” says Lyra’s sister Nichola. “In some parts of Northern Ireland, even to this day, that sort of belief system gives them legitimacy.”
But the younger generation is determined to break free of the past. Many of the so-called ‘peace babies’ believe that ending social disadvantage is the key to breaking the grip of the paramilitaries.
“If we’re seriously tackling division, we need to tackle it head on…and operate on the growth of poverty,” says Josh, a Belfast student.
Watch Troubled Land on Foreign Correspondent – Thursday 17 June at 8pm on ABC TV + ABC iview.
You can watch replays on Fridays at 1pm (local) on ABC TV, and on ABC NEWS channel on Fridays at 12:30am, Saturdays at 9:30pm, Sundays at 1:30pm and 6:30pm (all times AEST).
